Sandcastles
by Seta Kaita
Summary: Shinichi met Kaito first when he was building sandcastles on his favorite playground ShinichiXKaito Yaoi


Title: Sandcastles

Author: Seta_Kaita

Fandom: Detective Conan/ Case Closed

Pairing: ShinichiXKaito

Warning: Shônen-Ai/Slash/Yaoi

Author's Notes: Just some idea that came up… Merry Christmas!

Thanks to Phantasmal Reverie for beta-reading.

**Sandcastle****s**

I met him when I was still a very small kid. Sitting in the middle of the sandbox of my favorite playground, he was building castles and figures that never seemed to crumble unless he destroyed them himself. He was surrounded by other children who admired his work and cheered whenever he finished something new. My mother led me over to his mother standing next to the sandbox to have a chat with her. Back then his family was living in our neighborhood and I knew their name was Kuroba. He didn't look very much like me back then, in contrast to nowadays.

I watched him from afar, observing his every move to figure out what his trick was. I noticed it soon enough, but still I didn't walk right up to him and point out my superior knowledge. His constructions seemed too beautiful and wonderful to just ruin the magic. So I let it be and sat on a swing, my eyes never leaving him. He was laughing and obviously enjoying the attention, but I knew he had noticed me staring. He was aware of my presence; I could tell by his eyes flickering in my direction every now and then. I stayed the whole evening, never approaching him, but still never leaving him. Refusing to join my mother when she went home, I waited. He waited for the other kids to be called in too. Only when the last girl had disappeared around the corner did he lift his head and meet my eyes straight on.

He didn't laugh any more and I didn't smile the slightest bit. Our faces were neutral and the distance between us was huge. He would have had to shout to talk to me.

He did not approach me.

I did not move.

And still we understood.

And I fell in love with him when the setting sun touched his cheek and I wished it were my hand.

We moved to America a week later.

I met him again when I was Conan. He was disguised as KID and I was chasing him, because he was the bad guy. I never knew it was him and I had forgotten about my first love long ago, thinking Ran was my first one; never remembering that a man had claimed my heart when I was still in pre-school.

His tricks and stunts never reminded me of the fascinating kid in the sandbox and although they were both KIDs, I would never compare them. We danced around each other for months, always trying to best each other; me crossing his plans, him narrowly escaping. We mocked each other, we challenged each other and we never broke the rules we had established for our own game.

I now revealed his magic tricks and I took their mystery, but not their beauty. When we were alone for a bit we would exchange smart remarks, each of us keeping up our poker face, taunting. He would tease me for being way too small for the intellect I had and I would tease him of acting like an adult when all he really was just a KID.

After a while Ran would smile at me whenever I talked about him and pat my head with an understanding expression on her face. When I asked her why she looked so serious she took my hands and told me she had come to understand something about me and something I would later become and she wanted me to know that it was perfectly fine.

When I understood what she meant, I blushed vividly red, but said nothing to deny it.

After she had told Heiji about it in a suggestive tone, that she had never seen anything this cute in her whole life, he considered me for a moment. I ignored him and hid my head behind a magazine. Finally he agreed, remarking that he had never seen something as interesting as a primary school kid having a crush on KID.

Behind Ran's back, I gave him The Finger.

Something changed when I became myself again. At first KID stopped joking around me and taking me way too seriously for my taste. So it was up to me to restore status quo and get him to fool around with me again.

I started treating him like I had done when I was Conan, but that just earned me confused looks and uncertainty on his side. The distance was there again, but we didn't understand each other anymore. It was time to close the distance.

When I became more bolt and straightforward, he answered shyly as if he was testing the waters and finding them safe to swim in after a while. So we established a new game, creating a new distance and making up new rules. He stayed near me in his heist preparations from thereon and I noticed him most of the times but not making any move to unmask him. One time on a ferry from Tôkyô to Tokushima he was disguised as Ran. I noticed it as soon as he sat down in the car next to me. I took my sweet time to observe him before I dragged him on the dance floor right before his heist was about to start.

I told him he should stay calm although I knew and just grant me this dance. In return he nailed me to a wall with dozens of red roses right when the heist started. Smirking I thanked him for the attention and he winked at me, until Heiji and Hakuba protested against our flirting in such a situation. He glued them together as revenge.

We fooled around for ages and I could see that little fight going on behind that monocle whenever we met. He was trying to figure me and my intentions out and I would do nothing to make it easier for him, loving to see him struggle as much as I did.

Eventually I met him again on that playground. He was wearing his KID suit, but his hat and monocle were missing. I recognized him immediately, stopping in my tracks when I passed the playground on my way home from high school. He sat on that swing I had occupied all those years before and stared at a sandcastle he had built. It looked like he had almost used up all the sand in the little box to construct such a huge building made solely of sand and magic. He did not turn when I approached him, only focusing his eyes on me when I sat down on the edge of the sandbox, rummaging through my bag. Finding what I had been looking for I took out a pencil, a tissue and another pen. I scribbled a little KID signature on the tissue and fixed it on the pencil with a bit of tape. Then I put it on the top tower of the castle, all the while being closely watched by KID. When I turned around after lingering a bit, he had gotten up and stood only half a foot away from me.

I did not flinch.

He did not back off.

We just stared at each other in understanding, no real distance between us.

"Hey" he said "my name is Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you." He blinked. Once. Twice. Silence. Then he took my hand in his, not sure if it should become a handshake or something else. I felt the corners of my lips twitch.

"After all these years you remember to introduce yourself." I whispered, because my voice would not go any louder.

"You never asked for my name", he replied simply, taking my other hand as well. I did not reply and no reply was needed.

He kissed me slowly, never letting go of my hands as if holding on to a fragile dream that was about to shatter. He had taken the risk to reveal himself as KID and he kissed me as Kuroba Kaito, because he would never be able to be close to me as Kaitô KID.

I kissed him in the place I had first fallen in love with him. I kissed him for the sake of having fallen in love with him again as Conan. I kissed him as Kudô Shinichi, because I was never able to tell him when I was Conan.

We both understood.

When we left the playground together, the little flag on the sandcastle showed my face on the other side. There was only a thin layer of paper between us, only distinguishing us as two individuals who belong to together.

We then started to build sandcastles together.


End file.
